Space Cruiser Orion is a text-based strategy inspired by a classic game from the mainframe and later 8-bit era. It's a fun way to spend a coffee break, and with its unified navigation and combat mechanic it can also teach the use of polar coordinates.

Fly among the stars, fight invading aliens, rescue science!

The title is a reference to a cult classic TV series. Bonus points if you know!

Screenshot of a text-based strategy game running in a small window, showing an abstract star chart, stats, message log and colorful user interface.

This is a port of the BaCon edition, for educational purposes.

Download

Release 2 (June 2024) fixes a couple of bugs; also the game should now perform better on old computers:

Both archives include FreeBasic source code (see also the public repository). System requirements:

You can play the entire game with just the numpad keys. If you're not familiar with the original, it may not be clear how to play. See the player's guide included in the package.

License and contact

Space Cruiser Orion is open source under the MIT License. See the included file for details, and my my homepage for contact options.

Special thanks to the Basic4Us community for interest and encouragement.